Deputies Drag Man From `Jungle` Tracks

A resident of the ``Jungle`` tried to commit suicide on Wednesday by lying on the tracks of the Florida East Coast Railway as its 2:30 a.m. train approached.

If sheriff`s deputies hadn`t pried his hands from the rails, the man would have joined nine fellow homeless inhabitants of the woods who reportedly took their own lives in the last 18 months by what their survivors called ``kissing the train.``

Officials said the man, who refused to give his full name and age, was admitted to Broward General Medical Center under the Baker Act, to prevent him from hurting himself.

The problems that drove him and the others to such drastic measures -- mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse and unemployment -- now have spurred the Jungle`s most vocal members to leave the area north of Pompano Beach on a cross-country trek to Bakersfield, Calif., to publicize the plight of the nation`s homeless along the way.

``You mix those problems with the hurt those people have had in their lives and their inability to cope with society, and you get a strong desire to end it all,`` said James Yohey, a resident of the Jungle for 2 1/2 years. ``We want to get these issues across and get them addressed.``

Yohey, 50, along with a man who calls himself Jack A. Diamonds, 39, Ernie Cohen, 40, and a man known only as T.C., 34, said they plan to embark on their mission this morning.

With the departure of the four men, the estimated number of homeless living in the 20-acre stretch of woods will drop to 30.